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ABSTRACT RESUMO
This essay attempts to address the dual Este texto pretende abordar a dupla
character of Latin America in reaction to natureza da América Latina no debate
the debate of “Latin American identity”. sobre a “identidade latino-americana”. O
William Shakespeare’s drama The drama de William Shakespeare A
Tempest has inspired many Latin tempestade tem inspirado muitos latino-
Americans to seek self definition through americanos a buscar uma auto-definição
two of the book’s slave characters, Ariel através de dois dos personagens escravos
the obedient spirit, and Caliban the do livro, Ariel, o espírito obediente, e
mutinous native, both captured by their Caliban, o nativo amotinado, ambos
European master Prospero. In order for capturados por seu mestre europeu
one to understand more about what Próspero. Para uma melhor compreensão
relevance the two literary tropes of Ariel da relevância dos tropos literários de Ariel
and Caliban have, in relation to the e Caliban para a pergunta suscitada por
question that many intellectuals have muitos intelectuais sobre “qual é a
raised of “What is Latin American identidade latino-americana?”, é necessário
identity”, it is necessary to look at the determinar o significado global dessas
Global significance of these characters. In personagens. Em outras palavras,
other words, just as Retamar’s conforme a metodologia de Retamar, o que
methodology for Latin America implies, acontece na América Latina não deve ser
what happens in Latin America should considerado de maneira isolada em relação
not be considered in isolation from a qualquer outro assunto remotamente
anything remotely relevant anywhere relevante, em qualquer lugar do passado
past or present. The continent in essence ou presente. O continente na sua essência
must to continue 'assimilating inspirations deve continuar as “inspirações assimiladas
from all parts of the world’. This is the de todas as partes do mundo”. Essa é a
unique feature which perhaps identifies única característica que talvez identifique e
and defines Latin American identity. defina a identidade latino-americana.
KEYWORDS PALAVRAS-CHAVE
Shakespeare, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Shakespeare; Roberto Fernández Retamar;
Ariel, Caliban, Latin American identity. Ariel; Caliban; identidade latino-americana.
George Frederico Oliveira Bentley
Introduction
ranged from the vast riches Columbus had discovered, to the cannibalistic rituals of
the inhabitants, which is inferred to by Shakespeare’s anagram of cannibal from
Caliban. Hence, O’Gorman preferred the term, “The Invention of America” as
opposed to the discovery of America. The very discovery of Latin America had to
be disguised as a place that could be understood by Europeans, as this strange
‘New World’ created a problem. This was because in Europe everything before the
discoveries could be explained by religion for example the tripartite idea of the
world was the belief professed by the scriptures’, that the planet consisted of three
continents. Now this way of thinking would have to change as a result of this ‘la
cuarta parte del mundo’ (O’GORMAN, 1958, p. 185).
However, the cause for the volatile nature of the Latin American identity
debate can be traced to the fact that, once these Islands were finally recognized
as new discoveries, the Europeans conceived them to be a menace. The existence
of a new land in between Europe and Asia was seen as a barrier to achieving the
age old desire of establishing easy contact with the Far East. So, Columbus’ belief
that he had found Asia, along with the Voyagers’ fear of not discovering riches
equivalent to those found in Asia, meant that Latin America would not establish an
immediate identity until the ones who controlled history said so, namely the
Europeans. Instead, they would start what O’Gorman refers to as ‘el proceso’
(Idem, 1958, p. 185). in which Latin America was invented through a series of
voyages between 1492 and 1507.The fact that these discoveries were not
preconceived by the scriptures began to make Europeans question and modify
what had previously been learnt from hermeneutics1 as well as epistemology2
(Idem, 1958, p. 126). This two way process becomes increasingly unbalanced as
history progresses, because most of Latin American culture is imposed from
1
The branch of theology that deals with the principles of critical explanation or interpretation of the
bible.
2
A branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods and limits of human
knowledge.
outside and shaped to reflect other civilizations. Latin America was not seen as the
dynamic structures or by the multi-secular process that kept it together, it was just
defined by what Europeans instilled. Rather than recognizing the discovery of a
New World, the colonizers would instead create a new Europe. Therefore, this
process is what can be seen as America’s inclusion in to Europe’s self
modernization project that would also affirm the European dominance over the
“natural world”.
Inevitably then, two further questions are raised. Firstly, what could
explain the digression of Latin America? Secondly how could the tropes relate to
the issue of recovering a Latin America identity? O’ Gorman offers an answer to
both of these questions that point out the two paths that can be taken by the
repressed subordinate, in a power struggle. Latin America in O’Gorman's view was
enslaved by European values as Latin America took ‘the path of imitation’
(O’GORMAN, 1958, p. 156). The ‘backwardness’ of Latin American society in light
of ‘La invención de America’ was blamed on the copying of European models to
shape Latin American society. Whereas, North America takes the second path of
being ‘Americano’ (O’GORMAN, 1958, p. 157), which meant adapting the model to
the circumstances as opposed to the other way around. So in other words, Latin
America plays the passive role of imitating the savage behavior of the conquerors
and showing no sign of sophistication or originality. Whereas, the United States on
the other hand refutes these old ideals of Europe and invents their own principles
free from the colonizers influence. The parallels of Caliban to barbarous Latin
America and Ariel to the liberated United States can be thus loosely envisaged
here. Although these comparisons don’t quite fit, and O’Gorman’s text does not
refer directly to the characters of the The Tempest, it was still important to refer to
La Invención de America to fully appreciate the relationship shared between Latin
America, the U.S. and Europe. What is missing from this text is a positive
comparison of Latin America that could enable both an international and Latin
and energy, for individuals, for generations, and also for the evolutionary process
of society’ (Idem, 1900, p. 34) The story is appropriately situated in a classroom
with Ariel and Caliban as disciples of the wise European professor named Prospero,
who pontificates one last secular sermon. The pupil Ariel is the personification of
youth, human spirit and the aesthetic beauty that was emphasized by Greek
philosophers. Ariel was ‘reason and feeling’ (Idem, 1900, p. 31) over the basic
instincts of irrationality in contrast to Caliban who represented “basic sensuality’
(Idem, 1900, p. 31). These embodiments, were supposed to persuade the youth to
embark on the path of continual self-improvement and promote widespread
education. To reestablish the Latin American “spirit” Rodó uses the models of
Greece and Rome, both of which advocate the arts as a form of learning. So, he
adapts the classic concepts of ancient western culture as opposed to the U.S.
modern utilitarian culture that only partially educated the continent’s members,
consequently making high culture much harder to acquire.
Rodó’s main argument against the imitation of the U.S.’s path is that it
leads to mediocrity, as they do not advocate ideals like ‘selective education’ (Idem,
1900, p. 82) or an inclination to enable ‘excellence to rise above general
mediocrity’ (Idem, 1900, p. 82). Therefore, the argument was that the democratic
ideals of the U.S. that glorified utilitarianism only lead to a norm of mediocrity,
which destroyed the civilized values of aestheticism and idealism. This in turn,
would result in a lack of individual excellence and meant that there would be no
ruling elite edify the higher values of civilization. So, Rodó’s apotheosis of a
civilized Latin American society would be a democracy, in which a group of only
the finest elected individuals would be allowed to rule over the vulgar masses. The
danger that the youth would be encouraged by the success of the U.S. to imitate
the American democratic culture of ‘the utilitarian and the vulgar’ (Idem, 1900, p.
63) instead of establishing a Latin American culture, stimulated Rodó to
recommend the youth’s adherence to the virtues of specific philosophers. The fact
that they were all European intellectuals like Auguste Comté, Joseph Enerst Renan
and Frederich von Schiller was no coincidence. These were supposed to vindicate
Rodó’s claim that in order for Latin America to be itself they would have to revert
back to their European roots, as ‘we Latin Americans have a heritage of race’
(Idem, 1900, p. 73) and therefore should respect their European heritage by
remaining loyal to one’s country of origin.
So, Rodó has moved the position of Latin American identity another stage
on from the feeling of ineptness that O’Gorman conveyed in making a comparison
with the U.S. Although he shares O’Gorman’s view of Latin America’s backward
condition in relation to the U.S., Rodó prefers to take a more optimistic approach
to Latin America’s problems rather than succumb to “Nordomania”. Instead, he
ignores the anti-democratic perspective of Renan and Nietzsche to retrieve their
‘moral values and emulation’ (DEL SARTO, 2004, p. 97) as the enviable
characteristics shown by figures of admiration for the Latin American youth to
naturally follow. However, it is this fantasy of antiquating Latin American society to
hide the “barbarity” of the indigenous inhabitants that highlights a fundamental
contradiction and a flaw in Rodó’s argument. Firstly, the denial of any recognition
to the indigenous kind would be an abnegation of the true origins of Latin America.
Furthermore, establishing democratically elected white Creole ruling elites would
not be truly representative of the mixed race population and as a consequence
could not be considered a legitimate democracy. Finally, albeit making the
superfluous statement that Latin America is not Europe, Rodó should recognize
that these two distinct regions do not contain corresponding historical and cultural
compositions, which would facilitate a transposition of the Latin American political
constitution for a European model. Therefore, Rodó’s Ariel as the symbol of
European ideals, is more like a euphemism for the imitation of Colonialist
authoritarianism and prejudice towards the indigenous members of the colonies,
rather than a symbolical representation of a unified Latin America. So, if Ariel as
the spiritual intellectual does not comfortably fit the profile of representing Latin
American identity, then what could the remaining character Caliban, the complete
opposite to Prospero’s ‘spirit slave’, mean in the context of Latin American identity.
following the trend of previous hispanic writers in ignoring or pushing aside the
black and native races that help define Latin Americans from other parts of the
world. Therefore, Retamar’s open acceptance of Latin American social and cultural
background, allows him to not only rescue, but resuscitate the abrogated native
traits of Latin American identity in his essay Caliban’ (RETAMAR, 1955, p. 31). In
this text, Retamar addresses the issue of identity sustaining this open-minded
approach towards the sources and examples he uses. The essay commences with
a journalist’s question of “Does a Latin American culture exist?” (Idem, 1900, p. 3).
In answering this, Retamar enables himself to see what other Latin American
writers overlooked. He was aware of the important link between one’s culture and
language. By looking at other former colonial counties like India and Vietnam, he
recognized that similarities as well as differences can be established with Latin
America. Firstly, Retamar points out that, although all countries could claim to be
“mestizo”, the capitalist countries managed to establish relative homogeneity a
long time ago, and tried to achieve this in the colonies, but were not entirely
successful. That was the difference between the wealthier parts of the world and
the “Third world”.
One further distinction to separate Latin America from the other post
colonial regions is made by Retamar. He says that in the former colonial African
and Indochina countries, mestizaje would not provide an accurate description for
the majority of the population. Conversely, the reference to Latin America by
Cuban poet José Martí as “Mestizo America” was demonstrative of the dexterous
manipulation of language that was endowed to the colonized mixed race. Whereas,
the other former colonized states can converse in their own language, the
descendants of various Indian, African and European communities have to use the
language of the colonizer as a “conceptual tool” (Idem, 1955, p. 5). By this term
Retamar links the argument to the enslavement and language tuition that Caliban
endured at the hands of his colonizer Prospero. Therefore, he concludes the
introductory chapter with, ‘How else can I do this except in one of their languages’
(Idem, 1955, p. 5), to relinquish any guilt Caliban’s might feel in using the
language to “curse” the colonizer.
In further contrast to O’Gorman’s view, Retamar points out the same
anagram of Caliban from Cannibal, but believes it is significant because it refers to
the valiant Carib Indian race, that defended their territory from the Spanish
colonizers. Retamar illustrates the history of myths, legends and critical essays that
have personified the inhabitants of the Americas down the centuries in Caliban.
This was to prove the point that literature of the colonists defined civilization and
as a result dictated the personification of Latin Americans. So, to exemplify this
point further, Retamar recites the proud histories of the once conquered isles and
comments from Latin American heroes to contrast with the comments of European
writers like John Wain who saw the colonizers’ language as a feature which
weakened Caliban (Idem, 1955, p. 13). Whereas, Retamar’s reference to the post-
colonialist writers’ texts written as “one of the three great colonial languages”
(Idem, 1955, p. 13) suggests that it has given them great ability to articulate their
thoughts on colonial rule like Edward Brathwaite and Aimé Cesaire expressed. The
latter introduced the new idea of Ariel being a mulato slave alongside the black
slave Caliban in his drama ‘The Tempest: Adaptation for a black theatre’. While
Edward Brathwaite dedicated works to Caliban as well as works on Cuba in which
he includes details of how the country relates to the Trope. Therefore, Retamar
uses all of this as historical evidence to support his theory that Shakespeare’s
character Caliban is Latin American. Retamar strongly contradicts Rodó several
times but makes his stance especially lucid when he says that “our symbol is not
Ariel, as Rodó thought, but rather Caliban” (Idem, 1955, p. 48).
Consequently, the invasion of Caliban’s island, his enslavement and
erudition of language is all indicative of not just who the Latin Americans were
because of the colonizers, but also what power they had inherited from the
colonizers. From this power struggle, one can make several vital points. Firstly,
Latin America had no need to simulate other cultural models as it would only lead
to a poor imitation. Secondly, the revolutions were of cultural significance in Rodós
warranted preoccupation of impending “Yankee imperialist influences” in Latin
America. To counter this, Retamar suggests that despite their differences Ariel and
Caliban are both slaves of the same dominant power. As a consequence it would
be a logical solution for them to amalgamate their efforts to fight the repressive
forces. However, in light of the successful Cuban Revolution, the defiant Caliban
still remains the trope that characterizes Latin America and not the obsequious
Ariel. Ultimately, writers like Retamar want to give a voice to the previously mute
and negated “multitudes” by indicating the power of language they have inherited
from the colonizers. He makes this possible by recommending a project of a
‘“universidad americana” to which he quotes Che Guevara’s discourse on
education, in which his desire was to ‘extend it to the people’ (Idem, 1955, p. 45).
Therefore, to summarize, Retamar implied that the problem was one of a social
divide between the “multitude” and the “elite classes”. As a consequence the
replication of European ideals would only produce a poor copy of a European state,
which is what a Latin American is sometimes mistaken for, a poor cousin of a
European. It is in this sense that Retamar recognizes that Latin America has no
choice but to define itself with the language of the colonizer in order to understand
the past. Europe is the sovereign and theoretical subject of this nation and history,
as the nation state is a European concept. As a result, Caliban could be a powerful
representation for Latin American Identity, as Retamar proves through a positive
personification of these two deeply misunderstood complementary subjects.
Conclusion
On account of what has been discussed, it is clear that the original concept
of Latin America fulfilling the position of the pupil aspiring to be like its’ master,
3
The Term given by Anderson in his book (1983), Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin
and Spread of Nationalism. Published by London: Verso 1991.
society can now rejoin their middle to upper class compatriots that Rodó
personified as Ariel, to form an identity against the invading American influences.
Bibliographic references
Books
DEL SARTO, Ana; RIOS, A. Trigo, Abril (2004). The Latin American Cultural Studies
Reader - Caliban. Durham, N.C.: Duke of University Press.
GUSS, David. The Festive State: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism as Cultural
Performance. Berkeley: Calif: London: The University of California 2000.
VIANNA, Hermano. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music and National Identity in
Brazil. Chapel Hill: The University of California, 1999.
Websites
MARSH, Rod (1998). A Lecture Handout on Ariel (1900) and Calibán (1971).
University of Cambridge. Available from:
http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/spanish/SP5/nation/Ariel-Caliban.htm (Accessed
6/1/09).
MONICA, Rafael (No Date). O’Gorman on the Way To Utopia. Available from:
http://tell.purdue.edu/RLA-Archive/1995/Spanish-html/Monica,Rafael.htm
(Accessed on 5/1/09).4